The Chorale Prelude on ‘Wir danken dir, Herr Jesu Christ’, BuxWV224, is based on a melody familiar from J S Bach’s ‘Erschienen ist der herrliche Tag’, BWV629, one of the preludes of his Orgelbüchlein, and Buxtehude anticipates him by grasping from the outset how well it lends itself to imitative treatment, each line of the melody being part of a polyphonic web created by the other voices’ introductory material. The melody’s final note is extended into a rising scale, which reminds one of ‘Komm, heiliger Geist’.
from notes by Relf Clark © 2010
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